Carlos Carrasco suffers hamstring strain, confirming the Mets are still the Mets

There’s this dude; we’ll call him Felix. Felix was ecstatic when the New York Mets acquired his favorite player, Franciso Lindor, along with Carlos Carrasco, in early January. Felix told his co-workers about how he and his father Julio were exchanging celebratory texts regarding the news. Felix is naturally optimistic about his team no matter how badly they’ve beaten him down over the course of his life, so he feels like, if healthy, the Mets could win it all. But then Felix looked up at his phone today, 10 weeks later, and a tweet from The Athletic’s Mets beat writer Tim Britton caught him off guard. But once the tweet settled, it was an all too familiar feeling for Felix.

“Why do my guys always get hurt?”

“Is this why Cleveland threw Carrasco into the deal for no reason?

“And who the fuck is Joey Lucchesi?”

So Carrasco has suffered a hamstring strain, and as a result, he’s expected to miss the start of the season, though, with the Mets and injuries, you never know. Carrasco’s had a very effective career as a starting pitcher, even finishing fourth in Cy Young voting during the 2017 season. But in 2019, he missed a few months while dealing with chronic myelogenous leukemia, which was treatable, and he made 23 appearances, including 12 starts. Last year, Carrasco made 12 starts in the shortened COVID-season. Outside of Carrasco, Noah Syndergaard will miss the start of the season and isn’t expected to come back until late May at the earliest. And reliever Seth Lugo isn’t even throwing at the moment.

Hang in there, Felix, I just keep telling myself — I MEAN I KEEP TELLING FELIX — at least Marcus Stroman looks great so far.